Berkeley, CA, September 24, 2025 — A comprehensive set of reports released today by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab (CPL) and Committee on Revision of the Penal Code focuses on “second look” criminal justice reforms aimed at reducing prison sentences, limiting the use of sentencing enhancements, and shrinking California’s prison population. California’s resentencing policies are wide-ranging, affecting individuals serving sentences for both low-level, non-violent offenses and violent felony convictions with lengthy terms. Since 2012, approximately 12,000 people have been resentenced under these laws, 9,500 of whom have been released from prison.
The reports examine five of the most prominent resentencing policies enacted between 2012-22, several of which are ongoing.
1) Proposition 36 (2012) allowed resentencing for people serving a life sentence for a non-serious, non-violent third strike.
2) Proposition 47 (2014) reduced many low-level drug and theft felonies to misdemeanors and allowed for commensurate resentencing.
3) Felony murder reform (2018 & 2022) allows resentencing for anyone convicted of murder or manslaughter under California’s felony murder or “natural and probable consequences” doctrines, which allowed murder convictions if the person took part in a felony that resulted in the death of another person, but they neither committed nor intended the killing.
4) CDCR-initiated resentencing (2018) allows incarcerated individuals to be referred for resentencing by the Secretary of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation based on changes in sentencing law or exceptional conduct.
5) SB 483 (2022) allowed courts to reduce sentences tied to now-repealed drug and prison term enhancements.
Many of these policies resulted in the release of older incarcerated individuals who had served lengthy sentences.
The new report shows that most people resentenced and released after serving long sentences had very low recidivism rates. People released after serving shorter sentences for lower-level offenses had recidivism rates on par with people released from prison in 2018-19. The majority of new convictions were for misdemeanors.
“People resentenced and released under these policies had very low rates of new serious and violent offenses,” explains co-author Alissa Skog, Researcher at the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley. “Across all policies, fewer than 2% of people were convicted of a new serious or violent offense within one year, and for Prop 36 and Prop 47, the policies that were enacted first, less than 5% were convicted of a new serious or violent felony within three years.”
“This ground-breaking research is the first time that data has been used to show the results of California’s most prominent resentencing laws,” explains Thomas Nosewicz, Legal Director of the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code. “The results offer a blueprint for future policies and show that resentencing — particularly of older people who have served long sentences — can both protect public safety and save the state money by reducing unnecessary incarceration.”
The overview report is complemented by five policy-specific briefs that describe the characteristics and recidivism rates of people released under each resentencing policy by December 2024. The reports include characteristics and recidivism rates of people released from prison in fiscal year 2018-19 (“total releases”) as a benchmark.
Key Findings
- People resentenced and released after serving long sentences had very low recidivism rates. Among those resentenced under felony murder reform, Prop 36, or CDCR-initiated resentencing, between 3% and 8% were convicted of any new offense within one year. Fewer than one percent — less than five people — released through CDCR-initiated resentencing or felony murder reform were convicted of a serious or violent felony in that time.
- One-year recidivism rates for people released due to resentencing policies were generally lower than the total releases (new conviction rates range from 3% to 29%, compared to 21% of total releases), and the majority of new convictions were for misdemeanors.
- Women made up 11% of those resentenced and released under felony murder reform, compared to 7% of total releases. In contrast, women represented less than 2% of releases under Prop 36 and SB 483.
- Eighty percent of people released under Prop 47 served less than two years in prison. This group had higher recidivism rates than people released under the other policies and total releases: 29% had a new conviction one year following release, and 57% had a new conviction within three years. The majority of these new convictions were for misdemeanors.
- People resentenced under these policies were generally older and had served longer sentences than the total releases. Nearly 60% were aged 40 or older at release, compared to 34% of total releases.
Additional background
CPL conducted this study through a research partnership with the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, a state agency that studies and makes recommendations to improve California’s criminal legal system.
The data used in this report come from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Department of Justice (CA DOOJ). The CDCR data include detailed information on all admissions to, and releases from, California prisons between 2013 and December 2024 as well as all previous prison admissions for everyone admitted to and/or released from a California prison since 2015. The CA DOJ data includes information on arrests, dispositions, and sentencing for all cases between 1976 and June 2024.